Allies and Adversaries

The world of the Genuine Faux Farm has a wide range of  organisms that interact with each other and with the farm on a regular basis.  Some of these critters are invited.  Others interpret some of our actions as invitations.  But most are simply going about living their lives and probably try to ignore the fact that Tammy and I are here and we are still trying to do some farming on the land we steward.

Murphy, the kitten, now catten, was not invited to the farm.  And yet, we consider Murphy to be pretty much one of our welcomed allies.  She keeps us company when we walk the rounds to do the chores.  She knows how to be cute and will play with us every so often.  She will hunt and catch some unwanted rodents.  She helps with tray seeding....

Ok.  Maybe not that last one.  

But then, she also catches and kills young songbirds that have not yet learned to be wary of felines on the farm.  She annoys the other cats (the Inspector and Soup). She likes to try and run past us to get into the house and she isn't always to get out of the way when she is in the way.

An ally, yes.  But one that can sometimes be adversarial to our preferences by her very nature.

We count Barn Swallows among our allies on the farm.  They keep down some of the flying insects that can make being outside difficult for us.  They put on amazing shows of flight gymnastics and they often sit on the power line and chatter to us about their days, the eggs in their nests and anything else that comes to mind.

On the other hand, they love to put their nests in our buildings so that they are over something we don't want them to be over.  For those who do not understand, let me just remind you that when birds poop, they just poop.  And it seems they really like to let it go most often as they land or take off from the nest.

Most of the time we just deal with it if the nest is in the granary or the Poultry Pavilion.  But we find ourselves keeping the doors to certain buildings closed during the week or so that Barn Swallows are scouting for new nests.  It can be very inconvenient for us - but not as convenient as finding a swallow nest over an area where your cleaned harvest containers are stored or your garlic is curing.

We do have a fair amount of milkweed (a few different types) on the farm.  But the Common Milkweed is the most... um... common of them.  We don't mind having milkweed on the farm because we know they support some of the invertebrates we have decided we care about - especially the Monarch butterfly.  And when milkweed is in certain areas, they add an interesting texture and diversity to the plant life that we appreciate.

But, of course, Common Milkweed loves to invade cultivated spaces and they keep popping up where they aren't wanted by using their runners that spread out underground.  They can certainly stress out the crops we hope to grow and reduce their productivity.  While I don't find them all that hard to remove with our farming systems, I do get annoyed by the sticky, milky sap if it gets on my skin and clothing.

And so it goes.  Most of the plants and critters on our farm that we say we like have some sort of downside from our perspective.  And, I guess that's just the way it is.  None of them are entirely on our side, just as we are not entirely on theirs.  There will be moments where we clash and our interests fail to align.  Sometimes, we are adversaries more than we are allies.

Take deer, for example.

No.  Really.  Take the deer.  Take them very far from here.

As we have promoted a bit more "wildspace" on our farm and as we've scaled back production, we have set out the welcome mat for creatures like the Northern Bobwhite and encouraged a visit from a Wood Thrush.  We have also encouraged a healthy population of rabbits - and now some deer think this is a great place to raise their young.

Let's say we are less than pleased.  All you have to do is look at the lettuce and see how they like to eat the hearts out those plants when they are about half-grown.  Or you can look at our cauliflower crop.

Ok, you can't look at the cauliflower crop.  Because it's gone.  I think you can guess why that might be.

It's all part of the dance between the Genuine Faux Farm and the natural world.  If we say we want to work with nature, it means we have to accept that nature is not going to agree with us during every moment of our stewardship of this land.

Is this frustrating?  Yes.  But it makes you think harder about finding balances and reconsidering priorities.  I find myself admiring the grace of a fawn once it grows out of the early awkward phase - and I still consider them, raccoons, buffalo gnats and rabbits to be GFF adversaries in the first degree.  Each of these can rapidly reduce our goodwill and challenge our ideas like few things can.

What makes it worse is that many of our "allies" often seem to show little interest in supporting our interests.  I mean - if our interest happens to align with theirs - that's great and we're all going to work together just fine.  But the cats are still going to yowl at that moment you are about to fall asleep.  The Black Swallowtail larvae will eat some of your parsley.  And, the oak tree will drop a branch in your drive when it wants to.

In the end, we're the ones that have to exhibit the flexibility in our agreements.  The cat is going to be a cat.  The Barn Swallows will be Barn Swallows and the milkweed was only ever milkweed.  None of them professed to be anything else.  We do most of the choosing of our allies by working on our own attitudes and actions.

Over time, I've learned to find more allies than adversaries on our farm...  or at least I've accorded more of the things "neutral status."  But there's still a "dirty dozen" I fear will remain adversaries.  At least until I can get the deer to sign a contract that they'll eat things in areas we designate and the rabbits and woodchucks leave the seedlings alone so they can grow the food we can eat - and might be willing to share with them later on.

Sadly, none of them appear to be interested in learning to read or write and the idea of a contract might not get much traction.